Here we go again, dumping down the educational system

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot

August 5, 2009

It has just been revealed that the government will lower Senior High School (SHS) duration to three years instead of the usual four, based on a supposed thorough inquiry on the merit. 

In reality, the act is on a wish to fulfill a campaign promise.  And the NDC government needed to keep that promise.

 “The Government of Ghana after series of consultations, debates, and conferences, has decided to alter the duration of Senior High School (SHS) education from four to three years, starting from this academic year (September 2009)," reported Ghanadot.

The Minister of Education, Hon. Alex Tetteh-Enyo, spearheaded the disclosure for the change.  However, he offered no specificity about the benefits hoped for and to be gained.

No mention of rewards that this new system for High School would bring to the social fabric was also made.

All there was that, “there will be savings on one year’s educational expenditure for the government,” the Minister offered.

So by doing less, and at the expense of quality, we are expected to believe the government will save money.  This approach is famously called “bean counting” in America; mostly meant as foolhardiness. 

Unless there is a better gain in the overall result at the SHS level, the American description may also well be the case for Ghana. 

Still, why the hurry to rush kids out of school?  Decades ago, the High School years were five then it was dropped to four.  Is this three years just a step in the game of one-upmanship? 

Understanding the dilemma we face in education requires an appreciation of the prevailing economic circumstances of today in this nation.  And then to state openly, why the rush and for goodness’s sake, where are the jobs!

There is no need to rush some of these fresh high school kids into a marketplace of no jobs!

Step outside the market place and we have mounds of indiscipline on our streets.  Adding more unemployed high school kids onto the street will not help.  There is the damage that can be done to them and society by them being idle in the streets.

Could there be a better approach; like not emptying the schools faster? 

Even if the academic years can be shrunk to three years, the cost saved for that year cannot offset some of the damage that may result from shortening the years.

The reality is things are happening on our streets as we toy with academic duration in High School.

The jobless are many and growing.  And the youth are growing restless by the day.  Some are already into criminal activities.  And some are picking up abusive and destructive behavior patterns.

“Armed Robbers deserve “shoot to kill” response,” said the Upper West Regional Minister the other day in a debate in defense of the security agencies. 

So, we rush them from schools to kill them in the streets.  Our politicians, now turned social engineers, are failing in their first job.

 Even if academic training should end at the third year, you would think the fourth year marked for the chopping block can be kept as a period for some civic education, discipline, and trade skills training, while the kids are still in school. 

Poor education, to be precise, has its social costs that are not reflected in the budget for education.  A year less in school or no school at all has its cost and this can vastly offset any savings gained across the board by the one-year cut.

Besides, the notion that kids will be better educated in three years than four has to be questioned. 

The new policy being proposed has the same attributes as the old; same school buildings and facilities, same staff and pupils with set attitudes that made many of them fail within the four-year system.

A simple shift in policy will not do the job.  The cost savings proposed are a myth.  And, myths, like ghosts, are always hard to battle.

The short-term proposal is a political wish by the government.  Pupils in our schools and their parents are not the ones who are asking for the change.  But the Teachers Union, who under the NPP regime was against this very change, are now for it. 

In effect, lazy teachers that refuse to go the extra mile to ground and educate these kids well, under the four-year system, are now willing to use them as pawns in this unfolding game of political “one-upmanship.” 

And I suppose, years from now there would be a regime change, from the NDC to the NPP, then what happens?

The consequences will follow when kids are out too early, or not.  Some would move on to the tertiary level.  Under the three years proposal, more will end up in the streets selling dog chains as the job market becomes overwhelmed. 

Unemployment, disillusionment, disgruntlement, and the cry of civil unrest will be the result in the streets.

It used to be that pupils spent a total of 16 years, on average, at the primary, elementary, and secondary through sixth form stages. 

This old system had flexibility and merit.  It allowed exceptional pupils the opportunity to advance faster and not through a system of some wholesale promotion as the current proposal envisages. 

Smart kids, through promotions and success at intake examinations, can shorten their school years.  Late bloomers finish later at a more leisurely and secure pace.  Many in the two groups ended up as successful citizens and professionals.

The system that has produced our best brains of today was based on a longer-term spent at the high school level. 

The proposed three-year system, as rigid as it is wholesale, is yet to answer what happens to late bloomers.  How would such a student recover after the short three years in SHS?

Sadly, we are not even waiting to evaluate the result of the four-year system that was in place under the last regime and as recent as 2008. 

But the NDC party in government rushes on.  The experiment of a shorter school year than four can be described as success in the next party manifesto.  It will be labeled a “social justice” victory, to gain more votes in the next election. 

The truth of the matter is the ignorance produced will be beneficial for more politics as the uninformed SHS graduates go to the polls.

And when the jobs do no show in the marketplace, screams of “we not go sit make them cheat we” will be heard again in the street.  Good luck.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, August 5, 2009

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